


out of the darkness and into the sun

by MaddieandChimney



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Buck is a good brother, F/M, Gen, Maddie is a good sister, christopher is the cutest little ring bearer, featuring amelia and penny han, the buckley siblings own my heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:40:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29383596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: This isn't the first time he's walked his sister down the aisle but this time is different. He's not losing his sister but he's gaining a brother. He’s gaining two brothers to add this messy, beautiful family that neither he or Maddie would change for the world.They’ve both finally found a home. Together.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley, Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Comments: 18
Kudos: 82
Collections: 9-1-1 Tales





	out of the darkness and into the sun

He’s nervous. 

His palms are sweating, his chest is tight and he can’t stop moving, pacing the corridor as he tries to focus on his breathing. It’s crazy, _this_ is crazy because it’s not his wedding day but he’s standing outside the closed door of where he knows his sister is trying to get ready and the air is tight around him. It doesn’t make sense, he knows that much but this isn’t her first wedding and there’s this huge wall between him and Maddie that they’ve danced around ever since she announced that she was getting married again. 

Buck frowns, adjusting his tie for the hundredth time before finally, _finally_ , he knocks on the door. Her voice sounds out, accompanied by two excited giggles before he steps inside, the nerves temporarily dissipating when his eyes meet his sister’s and then suddenly, two pairs of arms wrap around his legs and he realises that there’s nothing to be nervous about. This is different, he’s not a fifteen year old stepping in at the last minute when they both realised that their parents wouldn’t be changing their minds. He’s not losing his sister this time, he’s no longer on the outside looking in. No, this time he’s _winning_. This time he gets to keep his sister and gain two brother’s in the Han’s, Mr and Mrs Lee have become an extended part of his family, too and then… arguably the best part of it all, his eyes look down at the four and two year old girls who look at him as though he’s just hung the moon and the stars. 

Last time, he’d been a fifteen year old boy feeling as though he’d had all this responsibility on his shoulders, as he walked his sister down to a man he hated and from that day, everything changed. It’s been over nineteen years since that day and he’s not looking at his nervous twenty-two year old sister, wondering if she has any regrets. The woman standing in front of him, she’s different. Her eyes alight with excitement, her cheeks flush and her smile bright. This version of Maddie doesn’t look as though she has the weight of the world on her shoulders, she’s not looking behind him for their parents with tears in her eyes. So much has changed for the better and this… this is just one thing in a long line of beautiful things. 

“Maddie…” She’s breath-taking, not only because she looks so beautiful in her white dress but because she looks so completely full of happiness and love, as though it’s going to burst from her. Buck can remember how much he had wanted to take her away from her first wedding, how he’d longed for her to whisper to him that she was making a big mistake so he could take her away from it all. “... you look beautiful.” His eyes shine with tears, “You all look so beautiful.” 

His attention moves from her for a moment, down to his nieces, hands gently brushing through their long, black hair as they both lift their arms up for him. It never fails to fill him with joy when he picks them both up, his heart so full of love for the family he and Maddie had found and created with each other and with others. There was never a moment he felt left behind, never a time over the last few years where he’d felt alone. He always knew that Maddie was ten minutes away and the excitement the little girls showed when they saw him was enough to make him realise just how good life can be, how full it can be. “Are you two ready for your very important jobs?” 

Amelia giggles as she nods her head, whilst Penny places an open mouthed kiss to his cheek before her tiny, chubby arms wrap around his neck and he forgets any flutter of nerves that had been resounding through him moments before. “Christopher and Uncle Josh are waiting for you both, right at the end of the corridor with your flowers, do you think you can find them?” They don’t have to be told twice, wiggling down before Amelia takes her little sister’s hand and off they run, in their matching yellow dresses, not even a glance behind them at their mother or uncle. 

They only have ten minutes before she has to be walking down the aisle, his arm linked in hers, both of them walking towards a man who has only ever looked at Maddie with love and kindness, and touched her with a gentle, caring hand. After everything, there is no one else Buck could have imagined trusting with his sister’s heart, unable to convey just how deeply helpless he had felt even without knowing or understanding what she was going through at the time. At fifteen, Buck had only ever taken notice of the discomfort he felt in his chest and stomach whenever Doug touched his sister. He had seen her change, he had felt a gap widening between them that hadn’t even been there when she went to college. But he had made sure he was there, even when she stopped contacting him, when she’d blocked his number and stopped answering his emails… he made sure she knew that he would be waiting. 

It’s only ten minutes, it’s not the time but there’s an elephant in the room and he knows neither of them can walk down that aisle again without addressing it. Buck takes a breath before he steps forward, reaching both his hands for hers, smiling when she takes it without the tremble of nineteen years ago. “I don’t want to upset you…” 

“It’s hard not to think about.” She interrupts him, shaking her head with a watery smile as her hands squeeze his, relief washing over him when he realises it’s not a foreign thought he’s put in her head but a shared one. “Thank you for being here… again. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” 

“You never have to find out.” He’s quick to get out, his hands held tightly in hers as he gulps down the lump in his throat, doing his best to hold back the tears that so long to fall. “I didn’t want to walk you down the aisle before,” She bites down on her lip, holding back tears of her own, “I-I didn’t know why or… I didn’t understand why. It just felt like I was losing you but you needed someone, you needed family there and I needed you to know that you weren’t alone. That I would always be your brother, even if… even if you didn’t need me anymore.” It’s hard not to think of Doug standing at the end of the extravagantly decorated church, his eyes dark and his smile tight and to anyone else, he’d just have looked like a man in love with the woman walking towards him. Buck just couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that had rushed through him. 

The tears she had been holding back start to fall, quickly captured by his thumbs the moment he drops her hands, not wanting her to ruin her make-up just minutes before she’s due to get married to a man who loves her in the way she deserves. A man who loves Maddie as much as she loves him. “I’m sorry, I don’t… I don’t want to remind you of that day, I don’t… I just… thank you for trusting me to do this again.” 

“Thank you for never giving up on me.” Like their parents did, those words are left unsaid but they both nod anyway. There is nothing in this world that could tear them apart, no… deep, dark family secrets or a husband who tries to create a wedge between them. It’s with a grin that she holds out her pinky finger for him and he quickly links his in hers, “Marrying Chimney is the easiest decision I have ever made. I’m so excited to be his wife, to be Maddie Buckley-Han.” Her smile is so bright, so unlike the woman he had stopped himself from throwing over his shoulder and running out of the church with so many years ago. The woman standing in front of him makes him want to _push_ her down the aisle to the man who has given her so much love and kindness and two beautiful little girls. To the man - his brother - who has helped them both find a family, when neither of them had ever truly felt as though they had belonged anywhere outside of each other. 

“I know it was hard for you before, with Doug… you were only fifteen and hindsight is a wonderful thing but… you being there for me that day when no one else was… god, that meant the world, Evan. It meant _everything_ to me. You mean everything to me. I never would have been able to leave him if I didn’t have you. I never would have found a home or a family or a safe place to run. I can never thank you enough.” 

Their smiles are wide as they look at each other, before they both take a step back and take a breath. “Are you ready?” He finally asks, knowing the answer before she can nod her head, “I can’t believe Chimney is going to be my brother.” 

“I can’t believe Albert is going to be mine.” She laughs, nudging his side gently when he takes her arm in his own, “We really are lucky to have each other, you know?” 

They walk slowly out of the room, through the corridor of the beautiful hotel she and Chimney had chosen as the perfect place to get married in, her arm held tightly in his before their eyes settle on the two excitable flower girls, standing next to Christopher in his suit, proudly holding the rings whilst Josh - Maddie’s best man - waits. They both know what’s on the other side of that door… their family. The one they had found together, both of them having felt lost and alone for so long. 

“We really are.” Buck finally confirms, once the music starts and his heart feels settled. He thinks about waiting at those church doors with a trembling Maddie, he remembers how his heart felt as though it would burst from his chest, a lump in his throat and an uncomfortable, nauseated feeling rushing through him. This time, as he watches Amelia and Penny practically run down the aisle in front of them, Christopher and Josh not too far behind them, he just feels… _full_. So full of joy and love. Even more so when he’s standing at the end of the aisle with Maddie, carefully watching the massive smile on her face before his attention turns to the man they’re walking towards. 

He doesn’t see Doug, he doesn’t think about the man that had been waiting for her before. Not when he’s looking at Chimney, not when he sees the tears in his eyes and the adoration in his face. There’s nothing but light and good in him, surrounded by their family, their big… messy, beautiful family that neither he or Maddie would change for the world. There’s not a single ounce of regret or desire to run and beg his sister to come with him when he lets go of her arm and she presses her lips against his cheek, before he shakes Chimney’s hand, an unspoken promise between the two men when their eyes meet.

It’s when Chimney’s hand gently presses against Maddie’s hip and she immediately melts into his touch, looking at him as though he is the sun, that Buck takes a step back. This is different. He isn’t losing his sister this time, he’s gaining a brother. There’s a nudge to his side, the wide grin of Albert as he stands next to him, waggling his eyebrows in a way that makes Buck smirk back, rolling his eyes. He’s gaining _two_ brothers.


End file.
